Howard finds his happy place with Lakers

EL SEGUNDO – The latest superstar to join Lakers history was smiling broadly on his first day with the franchise, offering a spot-on imitation of Kobe Bryant from their phone conversation the previous night and leaving Lakers executive vice president Jim Buss' booming laughter echoing throughout the practice gym during Dwight Howard's introductory news conference.

"Right now, I'm excited," Howard said Friday. "Nobody's going to take away that joy that I have."

Howard's mouth rarely stopped grinning but also offered no reassurances about his future beyond the coming season with the Lakers.

The Lakers actually weren't asking for any. Not only are they completely overjoyed to have Howard for 2012-13, they are overwhelmingly confident Howard will re-sign for future seasons.

General Manager Mitch Kupchak said Friday that club officials haven't had any internal conversations or concerns at all about getting Howard to re-sign with the Lakers a year from now. They will be able to offer more years and dollars than any other club.

"Our feeling was no matter what anybody says, let's just get him to Los Angeles," Kupchak said, "and we'll take our chances."

The Lakers consummated the four-team trade Friday morning to upgrade from Andrew Bynum to Howard at center, with Bynum going to the Philadelphia 76ers and Howard's long-desired exit from Orlando finally in place. The Lakers also sent out power forward Josh McRoberts and small forward Christian Eyenga, a protected future first-round pick and a 2015 second-round pick.

Point guard Chris Duhon comes to the Lakers along with power forward Earl Clark. Duhon will compete for minutes with Steve Blake behind Steve Nash, Kupchak said, and Clark was included to offset the loss of McRoberts' big body. The Lakers also agreed to free-agent terms with 3-point specialist Jodie Meeks, filling the need for a Bryant backup.

But the gist of the swap is Bynum for Howard, just as the Lakers hoped all along.

When Kupchak told Coach Mike Brown that Howard was coming, Brown asked who was going. Kupchak said: "Andrew." Brown, like many Lakers fans, sought clarification that Pau Gasol wasn't also going. When Kupchak said Gasol wasn't, Brown jumped up and gave Kupchak a big hug.

Kupchak said Gasol wasn't part of talks to depart with Bynum, but Gasol expressed relief at the London Olympics that it "will be nice to go into a year fully focused" instead of fretting over being traded.

Bryant, also in London, told reporters about Howard: "I'm only going to play two or three more years. After that, the team is his. I'm really happy that management has taken care of this for years to come."

The Lakers will again have the NBA's highest payroll in the coming season, paying $27.8 million to Bryant, $19.5 million to Howard and $19 million to Gasol alone. They will endure the luxury-tax penalties until the summer of 2014, when Bryant and Gasol come off the books and the club plans to get under the luxury-tax plateau just when the NBA's new repeater penalties would kick in.

Howard, 26, is aware of the hopes for championships until then.

"Everybody's going to expect a lot out of us," he said. "I know for myself, I'm going to give you 100 percent. I'm going to have fun. I'm going to smile. I'm going to dunk."

Howard, who had missed just seven games in his first seven NBA seasons, professed renewed love for the game after April 20 surgery to repair a herniated disc in his back.

"I've grown a lot in these four months," he said.

The Lakers consulted with Howard's surgeon, Robert Watkins, on Friday morning and were assured Howard will be back to his old self. Kupchak said he was hopeful Howard would be ready for the start of the season, though Howard was noncommittal.